The descent into the depths always seems to precede the ascent.

Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself.

The individual disposition is already a factor in childhood; it is innate, and not acquired in the course of a life.

In the second half of life the necessity is imposed of recognizing no longer the validity of our former ideals but of their contraries. Of perceiving the error in what was previously our conviction, of sensing the untruth in what was our truth, and of weighing the degree of opposition, and even of hostility, in what we took to be love.

Man is the mirror God holds up to himself, the sense organ with which he apprehends his being.

The creative person is overpowered, captive of and driven by a demon... They become our legendary heroes.

People are never helped in their suffering by what they think for themselves, but only by revelation of a wisdom greater than their own. It is this which lifts them out of their distress.